Rogers: Happy Independence Day prayer

Today is undoubtedly a day of fireworks, food, family, and festivity. A national holiday that clearly unites Americans under our shared commitment to country and our national pride.

Like many in Carlsbad, I look forward to this day with great anticipation. With family and friends gathered around the backyard pool and the barbecue grill, there will be undoubtedly food to share and the blessing of camaraderie and friendship. Then as evening draws near, we will all join together with our neighbors and friends in the greater Carlsbad community packing the waterfront on our blankets ready to watch the show.

Every year as I find some perfect spot to lay out my blanket and I look around at the faces that have joined me on the grass by the water I am struck by a beautiful picture. I inevitably see many people that I know; some that I know well. I also see people that I do not know.

Walking amid the crowd I hear more than one language being spoken and notice that there are scans of many different colors. There are women and men who work in all parts of our community. There are people that attend a vast diversity of religious communities and some who do not attend at all.

Children run and play while vendors sell the ubiquitous light of trinkets that have become such a part of the waterfront gathering. All over the smell of grilled food fills the air while the sounds of a multitude of musical styles bursts forth from small radios and the large band shell sound system.

And then, it happens. The Carlsbad fire Department lights off the first shell and the crowd becomes instantly transfixed. What was previously a cacophony of sound in language and laughter becomes a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" as the colorful displays explode overhead and the night sky is transformed into a patriotic array of color and fire.

That is a beautiful moment for me. It is not just the sheer pleasure of enjoying the fireworks. It's not the well of patriotic pride that wells up within me as a proud veteran and citizen of this country. Rather, it is the realization that all of us are shared it in joyous pleasure in the single celebration of this country. In that moment, there are no Democrats and Republicans.

There are no Catholics or Protestants. There are no Christians or atheists. There is neither rich nor poor, nor is there any division by language, skin tone, or lifestyle.

In that moment, brief though it may be, we are all Americans. In that moment we can actually agree on one thing and that is the celebration is worth enjoying. In that moment we have the potential to really sense a reality that is far greater than what we have become.

There are a lot of issues upon which loyal and patriotic Americans will never agree. It is truly the blessing of this nation that we do not have to bow to the tyranny of political power but have the sacred challenge of self-governance and the freedom to discuss, disagree, and move forward. Certainly, the blessing of our freedom is one of the greatest hallmarks of this great nation and one that deserves unrelenting gratitude. I thank God for what we have here.

The challenge and the prayer for Christians, and all Americans regardless of religious preference, is that we may find in our hearts the shared sense of unity that we may know for a fireworks show after the brilliant display is done in the joyous applause has faded. Tonight, as we get up from our blankets and scurry to our own family fireworks celebrations, let us each hold fast to the unity of that moment when all of Carlsbad is truly united as one.